CHAPTER#122

Letting out a grunt, she focused her attention on a patch of snow and swirled her magic around, raising a figure from it. Closing her eye, she let her consciousness flow into her clone, satisfied that her body was safe inside the home. Shaking snow off her shoulders, she walked down toward the gate, her crystalline tail swishing behind her.

There were three of them. An older woman with long, braided hair that reached her waist. A black woman who wore a gown that left little to the imagination, her skin painted with runes of fresh blood. The third member was an Arab man in a suit, a cocky smile on his face. He lightly fingered a ring on his left pinky.

"Ah, you must be the newest addition to the home." He smirked, his eyes traveling along Yuki's body. "And a fine looking one at that."

"What do you want?"

"Manners first. I am Amir, these are my associates Elizabeth and Kali." He waved his hands at the women by his side. "Frankly, we are here for the house."

"Over my dead body."

Amir sighed. "Sadly, I was afraid you would say that. If we must, then we must. But I was hoping you would be a bit more reasonable. You see, Mr. Radley has been quite stubborn, and I was certainly hoping to work something out. I feel I would be remiss if I didn't at least put an offer out there." He turned around and waved at the street behind him. "If you would be willing to leave, to walk away for good, I would provide you immeasurable financial compensation. In my world, money really does grow on trees. You would be free from harassment, allowed to go wherever you wish while my associates do our work here."

"I think you underestimate your chances here." Yuki held her arms out, sending her magic into the ground and forming several ice minions, beings about three-foot tall with jagged teeth. "This place is essentially a fortress. You can fight me, but you will lose."

Amir shook his head. "Okay. I tried." He rubbed the ring on his finger with his other hand and dark smoke flowed out from it, pooling near his feet to form a man that was roughly four feet tall. His skin was dark orange and he wore a white and red vest with large, golden chains fastened around his neck. His legs faded into the smoke that leaked from Amir's finger.

"Master?" The djinn's voice was surprisingly deep for his size, and his inky black eyes locked on Yuki. They were sad, and the being stuck his hands in spectral pockets, awaiting orders.

"Today's wish is for you to remove this gate. With prejudice."

"As you wish." The djinn floated forward and placed his hand on the cool metal of the bent swords. "Nothing personal," he said quietly to Yuki.

With a light shove from the djinn, the gate ripped free of the stone pillars and blasted through Yuki, shattering her clone. Her awareness popped back into her body and she snarled, watching the gate collide with the edge of the house and fall apart. The Page of Wands had already charged toward Amir, but Elizabeth had set it on fire. It now ran around, clawing at the flames on its head. The djinn had turned back into smoke and flowed into the ring.

"Damn, damn, damn." She ran to the door and pulled off her eyepatch and ran outside. Amir was only a couple feet into the yard, casually swatting away her minions with a wave of unseen force. When he looked up, Yuki let out a gasp.

"We saw what you did to our associate," Amir explained, his grin wide beneath the dark black blindfold. Elizabeth and Kali wore them too, and Kali seemed to be setting up some items in preparation for a large ritual. "We don't need our eyes for this."

"Ketsumedo yarou." Yuki slid her tarot cards from her sleeve into her hand and commanded the ice to attack. The remaining minions swarmed Elizabeth, but she spat out a black goo that expanded and caused them to stick together. Large icicles rose from beneath the snow and launched forward, but Amir let out a yawn and shattered them with his fist when they came close.

"Set up a perimeter around the sundial," he said to Elizabeth. "I'll see to Kali." The Queen of Wands charged him, but he grabbed her with his hands and yanked, ripping her in half vertically. "If we keep them from using the dial, we can have this done by nightfall."

"Like hell you will!" She slid the Knight, Queen, King and Page of Swords into her fingers and threw them like knives. They exploded in mid-air, showering the yard in sparks as four armored figures burst into being. The Knight and King charged at Elizabeth, who took several steps back and summoned a ring of green fire around her that they bounced off of. Amir's smile faltered when the Queen and Page attacked him. Rubbing a ring on a different hand, the smoke from within formed into a scimitar.

"And I haven't forgotten about you," Yuki muttered, pulling the Five of Pentacles loose. Kneeling, she pushed away the snow and shoved the card into the ground. On the other side of the yard, large cylinders of stone burst from the ground, breaking Kali's objects apart and knocking her around. Kali hissed something and sent an angry ball of light at Yuki, but she caught it in her hand and held it up to inspect.

"Huh." I have no idea what this is. She hooked her fingers in it and yanked, ripping it apart. Kali ran for the front gate just ahead of the King of Wands, then spun about and held up her hands, fingers pointed.

A blast of lightning rocked the yard, blowing the King of Wands apart. Amir had overpowered the Queen and Page of Swords, his blade cutting through their armored bodies and leaving them in ruin. Elizabeth was now outside the green ring of fire, the King and Knight trapped inside. Yuki's magic militia was falling apart.